Black Legion ***½ (1937, Humphrey Bogart, Erin O’Brien Moore, Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan, Robert Barrat, John Litel) – Classic Movie Review 5,064

The brave, nifty and ever relevant 1937 social drama film Black Legion stars Humphrey Bogart as a car factory worker persuaded into joining a secretive, industrial Ku Klux Klan-style racist sect.

Director Archie Mayo’s brave, nifty and ever relevant 1937 Warner Bros social drama film Black Legion stars Humphrey Bogart as a low-level car factory worker, hard-working machinist Frank Taylor, who is overlooked for a promotion to foreman in favour of a Polish-born worker (Henry Brandon).

But he is then persuaded into joining a secretive, industrial Ku Klux Klan-style racist sect called the Black Legion that intimidates foreigners with violence. Frank’s wife (Erin O’Brien Moore) and best friend Ed Jackson (Dick Foran) are deeply troubled.

The punchy, socially aware, concerned tale is told in a commendably direct and urgent way by Mayo in an unusual, very rewarding film. And it is an unusual, very rewarding early-career star role for a pre-tough guy Bogart. The film’s producer Robert Lord was Oscar nominated for the 1938 Best Original Story. It bravely tackles American race hate and Depression era work issues head on, though its issues are universal and timeless.

Brave it was, as one of several films of this era that opposed the fascist and racist organizations that were attacking immigrants, Catholics, Jews, Asians and Blacks. Robert Lord fictionalises the Michigan white vigilante group Black Legion, a third of whom lived in Detroit, a centre of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. His story is based on the Detroit May 1935 kidnapping and murder of Works Progress Administration organiser Charles A Poole. Eventually 12 men were tried and 11 convicted of the murder and sentenced to life. Another 37 men were  prosecuted for related crimes, convicted and jailed, breaking up the Legion.

Details about the Legion seen in the film, such as the initiation oath and the confessions in the trial scenes, were based on known facts, but Warner Bros underplayed aspects of the Legion’s political activities to avoid legal repercussions.

However, the Ku Klux Klan sued Warner Bros for patent infringement in using the patented Klan insignia of a white cross on a red background with a black square. The judge upheld Warner Bros.

Columbia Pictures had previously made Legion of Terror (1936) based on the same case.

It also stars Ann Sheridan, Robert Barrat, and John Litel

Also in the cast are Charles Halton, Helen Flint, Joseph Sawyer, Addison Richards, Eddie Acuff, Paul Harvey, Samuel S Hinds, Dickie Jones, Dorothy Vaughan, Harry Hayden, Paul Stanton and Egon Brecher.

It is shot on location in various Hollywood homes, the Providencia Ranch in the Hollywood Hills, and the Warner Ranch in Calabasas.

Black Legion is directed by Archie Mayo, runs a taut 83 minutes, is released by Warner Bros, is written by screen-writers Abem Finkel and William Wister Haines, based on an original story by producer Robert Lord, is shot in black and white by George Barnes, is produced by Hal B Wallis (executive producer) and Robert Lord (producer), is scored by Bernhard Kaun, and is designed by Robert M Haas.

It started filming in late August 1936 and premiered on January 17, 1937 in New York City, and was released on January 30, 1937 in the US.

It ran in troubles abroad and was banned in Austria, Switzerland, Cyprus, Finland, Trinidad and France, and British and Australian releases were heavily censored.

The cast are Humphrey Bogart as Frank Taylor, Dick Foran as Ed Jackson, Erin O’Brien-Moore as Ruth Taylor, Ann Sheridan as Betty Grogan, Helen Flint as Pearl Danvers, Joseph Sawyer as Cliff Moore, Clifford Soubier as Mike Grogan, Alonzo Price as Alf Hargrave, Paul Harvey as Billings, Dickie Jones as Buddy Taylor, Samuel S Hinds as Judge, Addison Richards as Prosecuting Attorney, Eddie Acuff as Metcalf, Dorothy Vaughan as Mrs Grogan, John Litel as Tommy Smith, Henry Brandon as Joe Dombrowski, Charles Halton as Osgood, Pat C Flick as Nick Strumpas, Francis Sayles as Charlie, Paul Stanton as Barham, Harry Hayden as Jones, Egon Brecher as Old Man Dombrowski, Robert Homans as Motorcycle Cop, and Jack Mower as Court Clerk.

Erin O’Brien-Moore, Humphrey Bogart and Ann Sheridan.

Bogart had started attracting attention in The Petrified Forest (1936), but Warner Bros failed to promote him or the film in any special way, so real stardom had to wait for High Sierra in 1941.

Robert Lord’s Best Original Story nomination lost to William Wellman and Robert Carson for the much safer choice of A Star Is Born.

Executive producer Hal B Wallis wanted Edward G Robinson to star, but producer Robert Lord thought Romanian-American actor Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg) was ‘too foreign looking’ and wanted a ‘distinctly American looking actor’ to play part. Robinson was an outspoken public critic of fascism and Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s.

Liberal Democrat actor Bogart organised the Committee for the First Amendment (a delegation to Washington DC) in September 1947 opposing the House Un-American Activities Committee’s harassment of Hollywood screenwriters and actors.

Lauren Bacall said of Bogart: ‘Here was someone who believed in something.’

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,064

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